Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Though we still don't have a pasta maker (we got one from a store, but it was defective; then we got another one online, and they sent us the wrong kind) we decided that it shouldn't stop us from having homemade ravioli. So we got won-ton wraps and filled them with ricotta and spinach, and after 3 minutes of cooking we got these yummy creations:

Served with our homemade tomato sauce and a couple of slices of freshly made bread, spread with Gorgonzola, this was a real Sunday night treat.

On Friday Mark made this amazing peanut butter banana bread with a recipe taken from the Vegetarian Times. He, of course, omitted the oil and used more bananas, and the result was so good, even days later (I had a piece yesterday).

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

This past weekend included some new baked items. We started with Kolach, a Bulgarian type of bread that's very rich - the dough is made with eggs and yogurt. It reminded me a lot of Chalah, except it's a bit more sour.

We weren't quite sure what to eat it with. I figured an egg would be good, especially since we had some leftover from glazing the bread.

I spread it with cream cheese and topped with some greens. It was good!

A grad student got married over spring break, and so a couple of other grad students decided to have a little reception for him in the office. Then they decided that there are a couple of other people who got married recently, so they decided to add them to the celebration. One of them is myself. It was a bit weird to be congratulated for something that happened over 6 months ago, but I guess it's my fault for not telling anyone about it when it actually happened.For the reception I decided to bring Hamantaschen, traditional Purim cookies. After all, Purim is just a few days away! In Hebrew they're called "the ears of Haman". Haman was the evil guy who tried to convince the king of Persia that the Jews are bad. I don't know why they decided to name the cookies after the guy's ears, though. As you can see from the photo, they don't really look like ears. Well, not human ones.

I used this recipe, but filled with raspberry jam because that's what I had. The dough kept opening during baking and I had to reseal them, which was kinda hot on my fingers. But the flavor was good.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

In addition to the usual stuff that Mark keeps baking again and again (well, mostly because it's so good!), namely pizzas, calzones and muffins, he finally baked something new: a blueberry "any-fruit cake".

When we had it fresh out of the oven, the topping was so crispy, we wanted to finish it all up right then and there, thinking it will get soggy if we wait. But I found that covering it up with a paper towel helps it stay crispy and yummy and we can enjoy it for at least 3 to 4 days.